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CENTENNIAL 
HISTORY 

OF 

INDIANA 



By 
ALECK DAVIS 



Illustrations by George B. Sweitzer 





1816—1916 



^pi 



CENTENNIAL 
HISTORY 

OF 

INDIANA 

B, 

ALECK DAVIS Miit^ 

lUustrations by GEORGE B. SwEITZER 




Copyright 1916 
By John W. Kitch 






/ 

JUL 26 1916 
©CI.A43556J 



This volume is Respectfully 
Dedicated to the Order of 
Hoosieroons and its First Grand 
High Potentate, 

May they suffer long, silently 
and patiently, 

THE AUTHOR. 



INTRODUCTION 

A half century ago, there was a crying need 
for Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup among the 
children of Indiana. To day, those of the 
children of '66, who have survived the taking 
ways of malaria, the White Caps and the au- 
tomobile, are engaged in the mad rush for 
wealthand toobusy to spend weeksandmonths 
poring over, and wading through, the long 
drawn-out detailed, dry facts of history as here- 
tofore doled out to Indiana readers; hence this 
little volume. It is designed to take the place of 
Mother Winslow's concoction as the crying 
need of a busy public. 

This work is not intended to belittle the ef- 
forts of such historians as have gone before. 
They did the best they could. Many of them 
did not have the advantage of an acquaintance 
with the author of this work. 

THE CENTENNIAL HISTORY is de- 
signed to be a plain, truthful, delineation of 
important events in Indiana. It is arranged 
so that the shop-keeper, in his leisure moments 
between sales of shirtwaists and prunes, and 
the farmer, during the noon hours and on 
rainy afternoons, may glean the history of 
their native state, free from the frills, embel- 
lishments and biased opinions of the larger 
chronicles. All such superfluous matters as 
Indian massacres, detailed political battles and 
biographies of big guns have been eliminated. 
Nobody's picture, or his own recollection of 
the great things he has accomplished, is pub- 
lished herein at so much per. 

This work is intended to secure to the auth- 
or, fame and riches, but no space has been 



farmed out to patent medicine firms or to the 
author's competitors in the realm of fame. 

The thanks of the author are due to those 
who have assisted and made possible the com- 
pletion of this work. Special mention is due 
to Mr. Andrew Carnegie, who built the library 
where the stufT was read that was put into this 
history. Christopher Columbus also has the 
thanks of the author for so kindly discovering 
this country when he did and thus making 
possible a history of this sort. Last, but by 
no means least, Miranda and the Twins should 
not be forgotten. It was their faithful attend- 
ance at the shirt factory that kept up the fam- 
ily larder while this work was being compiled 
on the back stoop, and it was they who pro- 
cured the scissors from the factory with which 
many of the beautiful gems were written. 

Aleck Davis. 

Hobbstown, Indiana, July 4, 1916. 



Centennial History 



of 



Indiana 



When the dreamer, Columbus, landed on the 
little tropical isle of San Salvador and discov- 
ered a new world, he had but little idea of the 
wonderful find he had made. He did not know 
that he was opening to the use of civilization, 
a vast new Earth with resources never thought 
of by the wildest of Humanity's visionaries. 

Columbus died and generations of other ex- 
plorers followed him and passed away, and 
yet the half had not been discovered. 

The rich gold lands of Mexico were exploit- 
ed, and daring adventurers penetrated the 
deadly sw^amps of the southern part of our 
country in search of the fascinating yellow 
metal. But there lay untouched, in the very 



center of this great empire, a land of wealth, 
capable of yielding many times the treasure 
to be found in the alluring lands of the south. 
For over two hundred years after Columbus 
had startled the world and gone almost friend- 
less and penniless to his grave, the untutored 
savage contended with the buffalo of the prai- 
ries and the wilder and more ferocious beasts 
of the dense forests for an existence, along the 
valleys of the St. -Joe, the White, the Wabash 
and the Ohio rivers. 

At first Spain claimed all this vast, unknown 
region, and exercised a sort of general rule 
over it because of her early discoveries. Then 
France sent her explorers and missionaries 
into the Mississippi Valley and began to es- 
tablish trading posts and missions at various 
points. 

However, the territory comprised in the 
state of Indiana was still in its primeval con- 
dition at the outbreak of the Revolutionary 
War, with the exception of that occupied by 
a small band of hardy French pioneers who 
had a settlement on the east bank of the Wa- 
bash River about fifty-five miles above its 
junction with the Ohio. This point had been 
a trading post since early in the 18th Century, 
but for many years, it could scarcely be called a 
settlement. Only a few daring spirits, devotees 
of the church, surrounded by savages more to 
be feared than wild beasts, cultivated small 
patches of grain, hunted for game in the forests 
and lived almost like Indians themselves. 

The savages of the Indiana of that day were 
diiTerent from those to be found in the state 
now. 

They were not so crude in their methods. 



When the savages of the ante-Revolutionary 
period took up the delicate task of carving up 
a citizen, they did it "neatly and with dis- 
patch." There was no bungling, no hesitation, 
no negotiating, no criminations or recrimina- 











"Took up the delicate task of carving up a citizen." 

tions. They simply removed the place where 
the bald spot ought to be and traveled on to 
greener pastures. Sometimes a mere minority 
would control a whole convention by means of 
the unit rule and the scalping knife. 

The Pottawatamies and the Shawnees were 
among the most energetic of the Hoosier in- 
habitants of that day. They took the prin- 
cipal part in the entertainment of General Har- 
mer, Arthur St. Clair and Mad Anthony 
Wayne in the vicinity of where Ft. Wayne 



8 



now stands. It is possible that we would have 
had Ed. Hoffman and the big Allen County- 
court house long before we did, if it had not 
been for the reckless dissipation of these red- 
skinned gentlemen. 

At the close of the last French and Indian 
War, the territory of Indiana became a part 
of the British possessions in America. In 
1778 and 1779, one George Rogers Clark, with 
an imposing army of some sixty or more men, 
over-ran the states of Indiana and Illinois and 
captured the principal cities of Vincennes and 
Kaskaskia. The sum of Twelve Hundred 
Pounds Sterling was donated to Clark as ex- 
pense money for this expedition. It has been 
the consensus of opinion that Clark worked 
too cheaply. There are some slanderous 
tongues that have even gone so far as to inti- 
mate it has cost Bill Cullop more than that 
sum to capture Vincennes alone in recent 
years. 

It was an important work that Clark did. 
He made us citizens of the United States in- 
stead of mere British subjects. If it had not 
been for him, George Ade and Meredith Nich- 
olson would probably be digging in the 
trenches at Verdun today instead of trying to 
monopolize the Centennial literature in this 
great commonwealth, and Tom Marshall 
would doubtless be paying tribute to one, J. 
Bull instead of throwing the one without a 
christian name and talking about a prepared- 
ness that makes for peace. 

We have honored Clark by naming a whole 
county after him and putting a penitentiary 
there where our youth may be educated. 




Gen. Anthony Wayne 




Tecumseh 



In 1787, Northwest Territory was organized 
and Arthur St. Clair was appointed governor. 
What is now Indiana was included in this ter- 
ritory. Thirteen years later Indiana territory 
was organized and William Henry Harrison 
made first governor. Vincennes was the capi- 
tal. It wasn't much of a place then. The de- 
pot hotel had not even been built at that time, 
but the streets were just as muddy as they are 
now. It was here in 1811, that Tecumseh made 
his famous Henry Warrum Speech that caused 
the Battle of Tippecanoe. This was the only real 
sure-enough battle ever fought in the state. 
Tecumseh was badly defeated in the Battle of 
Tippecanoe, but the Indians over in the Tenth 
District have since re-captured the territory 
and it is difficult for a white man to accomplish 
anything there even now. 



Indiana was admitted to the Union as a 
state in 1816. By that time it had a consider- 
able number of people scattered over its south- 
ern portion engaged in the pursuit of raising 
corn, wheat, potatoes, hades, tobacco and other 
useful cereals. The capital of the territory had 
been removed to Corydon in Harrison County 
and here a state house had been built out of 
native stone, forty feet square and two stories 
high. The builder was a mason by the name 
of Dennis Pennington who was afterwards 
one of the state's first legislators. A state con- 
stitution was drafted during the summer, most 
of the sessions being held under an elm tree 
a couple of blocks away from the state house. 
This tree has been preserved and is known as 
"The Constitutional Elm." It isn't much of 
a tree. There is much better saw timber in 
many less noted parts of the state. 



10 




When Indiana became a state, Jonathan 
Jennings became its first governor and served 
six years. He had no whiskers. Jennings 
County is named after him, but he couldn't 
help it and it is understood that he did not 
belong to either the Vernon or the North Ver- 
non faction in the court house fight. 

Corydon, Indiana's first state capital, is a 
rather neat little village nestling down among 
the stony hills of Harrison County. The hotel 
landlord also acts as clerk, steward, table 
waiter and chambermaid. He is a corpulent, 

good-natured old fellow who dotes on fried state House at Corydon. 

chicken, and prides himself on the quality of 
this provender he dishes out to his guests. The 
electric lights go out at midnight, but there is 
a kerosene lamp in each room for the accom- 
modation of the stranger and wayfaring man 
who may perchance keep late hours. 

A railroad extends from Corydon to Corydon 
Junction, a distance of seven miles as the crow 
flies. But there are no flies on the railroad. A 
disciple of Theodore Roosevelt acts as super- 
intendent, general manager, operator, ticket 
agent and conductor of the train. The engine 
on the train has a whistle with a sweet and 
mellifluous voice that reverberates among the 
hills and vales and scrub oaks of Harrison 
County as it announces the passage of the train 
to this historic spot. 

About a mile and a half out of Corydon, on 
the Louisville Pike, stands the old stone tavern 
where Governor Jennings and the legislators 
ate their meals and dreamed their dreams of 
future greatness. A private family lives in it 
now. Just back of the building, where the rain 
barrel stood, in which the statesmen were wont nSuriVoidTiiow."*'"'^' 




11 




The Monument 



to lave their honest toil-marked faces, the 
clothesline is fastened and there, back and 
forth, the summer breezes whip the newly- 
washed calicoes and ginghams of the farmer 
and his family. The cock roaches creep in and 
out of crevices that once resounded to the heat- 
ed debates and quieter intrigues of the General 
Assembly of the great state, as only intrigues 
and debates can resound. 

Indianapolis was laid out in 1820. It has 
been thought dead several times since but they 
didn't lay it out on those occasions. In 1825, 
the state capital was removed from Corydon, 
and Indianapolis, has since that time, shared 
with French Lick, the seat of government. The 
state treasury was moved by ox-team over the 
mellow highways of Southern Indiana, and 
was a slow and tedious process. Samuel Mer- 
rill was the state treasurer at that time. He 
was the grandfather of Congressman Merrill 
Moores of Indianapolis. 

Indianapolis is situated near the center of 
the state, on the White River and around the 
soldiers' monument which stands just across 
the street from Bill English's old hotel. The 
principal places of interest in Indianapolis are 
the Union Depot and Pop June's oyster house. 

In 1831, the first steam mill in the state was 
erected at Indianapolis. At that time there 
were no safety zones and the rural visitor 
could cross one of the streets on the bias if he 
wished to without being insulted by some big 
Irish policeman. 

The highways of that day were more pic- 
turesque than serviceable. It is said that on 
the site of the old trails leading to Indianapo- 
lis, one can hardly dig a well without going 



12 



through two or three layers of Conestoga wag- 
ons and ox-bones. The Michigan Road was laid 
out in 1832 from Michigan City to Cincinnati, 
but that portion lying between Plymouth and 
Lakeville has never been completed. As late 
as 1848, a citizen of the state fell off of this road 
into the cat-tail swamp where Argos now 




"The highways of that day were more picturesque 
than serviceable." 

stands, and it was with difficulty that he was 
rescued from an untimely death. The road 
was originally laid out one hundred feet in 
width, but the enterprising farmers along the 
way have allowed their fences to gravitate to- 
ward the center in many instances, and the 
road isn't so wide any more. 

One of the earlier enterprises of the state 
was the Wabash and Erie Canal. This was 
designed to connect the waters of Lake Erie 
with those of the Mississippi while branches 
were to run to Indianapolis and other points 
forming" a net-work of water-ways over the 
state. The advent of the railroad in the later 
forties spoiled this plan and the completed 
parts of the canal are now used as feeding 



13 



grounds for bull-heads and big, warty, green 
frogs. In connection with the Wabash and 
Erie Canal, profanity was introduced into the 
state. 

The first railway in Indiana was built from 
Madison to Indianapolis. It took eight years 
to complete this road. The road-bed seems 
to have been built on a sort of perpendicular 
scallop style. The rolling stock is said to have 
been repainted at one time since the road was 




"Built on a sort of perpendicular scallop style." 

completed, some new ties have been installed 
and the wooden rails with iron straps have 
been replaced by metal rails. One trip from 
the Capital City to Madison over this road is 
equal to a month's treatment with a modem 
chiropractor. 

Manufacturing has made great strides in In- 
diana during the century just past. From the 
early inhabitant sitting astride his shaving 
horse and turning out clapboards and ax-han- 
dles, we have grown to wonderful proportions 
as a manufacturing people. The cotton mills 
at Madison, tin-plate mills at Elwood, steel 
mills at Gary and Indiana Harbor, vehicle fac- 
tories at Auburn, South Bend, Kokomo, Indi- 
anapolis and other cities, are only a small part 
of our manufacturing industries. There are 
almost numberless factories making imple- 



14 



ments, fabrics, food products, fixtures and nov- 
elties of every kind and description in every 
part of the commonwealth. 

The State Seal of Indiana consists of a 
rough-looking citizen chopping down a slip- 
pery elm tree, while a mad buffalo, with eyes 
shut, head down and tail distended, is rushing 
by, evidently on his way, but knowing not 
whither he is drifting, while a very brilliant sun 
is just coming up or going down at the north 
end of the scene. It is suggestive of some 
Hoosier characteristic, but no one seems to 
know just what. 

Politics is one of the main industries of the 
state. Andrew Jackson always carried Indi- 
ana, but he doesn't get any votes any more 
since the Spanish American War. Formerly 
when a man wanted to run for office, he mere- 
ly announced himself as a candidate and made 
a campaign to suit himself. His campaign 
speeches were often made from nearby stumps, 
from whence came the name, "Stump Speak- 
er." The average man no longer runs for office 
in that way. Those who do, don't get very far. 
The candidate for office, today, must be named 
as a candidate of some particular party and 
all members of that party are in duty bound to 
vote for him under the pains and penalties of 
treason. We select road and pike superinten- 
dents, not because of any knowledge on their 
parts as to the construction or repair of high- 
ways, but because they are faithful servants of 
the dominant political party. A citizen may 
be unable to read or write the English lang- 
uage intelligently, but if he can distinguish a 
picture of a rooster from that of an eagle, or 
that of an eagle from some other similar em- 




"It is suggestive of some 
Hoosier characteristic." 



15 




"From whence came the 
name Stump Speaker." 



blem, and if he is loyal with a big L, — that is 
if he votes the ticket of his chosen party, reg- 
ularly, continuously, unreservedly, completely, 
and without the least equivocation or mental 
reservation, — he is eligible, in Indiana, to any 
office of public trust or private snap, from Gov- 
ernor to school director or street sweeper. 
Sometimes, under this system we get the situ- 
ation a trifle confused and put a strong, 
healthy, bull-necked man, who would make a 
splendid sweeper of the streets, into the State 
House, while we compel the weazened, little 
chap, whose brain development has out-run 
his physical growth, to work on the streets, 
where he is helpless except in the matter of 
raising a dust. 

Indiana took a prominent part in the Mexi- 
can War of the Forties, however, much she tried 
to forget it later. It seems that some one re- 
ported that an Indiana regiment at the Battle 
of Buena Vista felt that the expression, "There 
he goes," was a much happier one than, 
"Doesn't he look natural?" All good loyal 
Hoosiers have since found out that the report 
was a vile slander, and since it happened so 
long ago and since none of our folks were pres- 
ent, let's let it go at that. 

In 1850, the restless people of Indiana de- 
cided that the state constitution needed revis- 
ing. The constitution at that time had been 
in use only thirty-four years and wasn't a bit 
frayed around the edges. Besides, it had stick- 
ing to it all the sacred memories of a scrubby 
elm tree, and the wisdom of a lot of infallible 
and immaculate forefathers. But the people 
were obdurate. Addison Harris and Charles 
Sefrit were not then engaged in saving the mob 



16 



from itself and its follies, and the constitution 
was revised by framing a new one. This in- 
strument was made perfect and to fit the ex- 
igencies of all coming ages. 

The preamble to this constitution is as fol- 
lows: — "We declare that all men are created 
equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator 
with certain unalienable rights; that among 
these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happi- 
ness ; that all power is inherent in the people; 
that all free governments are, and of right 
ought to be, founded on their authority, and 
instituted for their peace, safety and well-be- 
ing. For the advancement of these ends, the 
people have, at all times, an indefeasable right 
to alter and reform their government." 

By "men" and "people" this preamble 
means, of course, "learned men" and "leading 
people" — folks like the author of this work 
and Charles Warren Fairbanks and Steve 
Fleming, and not the common herd that is al- 
ways trying something detrimental to its own 
interests. 

A wise provision of the constitution is that 
all lawyers must be persons of good moral 
character. It would indeed be a calamity if 
we allowed persons to practice law in the 
courts when such persons were dishonest or 
immoral in some particulars. It is consoling 
to the people to know that they are able to 
trust their lawyers implicitly and that they are 
thus safe-guarded by the fundamental law of 
the commonwealth. Another provision of this 
constitution that we should all be grateful for, 
is that found in Article 10, Section 1, in regard 
to securing a just valuation for the taxing of 
all property. What a sad commentary it 

17 



would be on our republican form of govern- 
ment, if some wicked men might escape a full 
and just valuation of any part of their taxable 
property. As it is, we can rest assured that 
every man pays his equitable share of the bur- 
dens of state. 

When this constitution was framed, there 
were no street or interurban railways in Indi- 
ana; there was only one steam railroad in the 
state ; there were no electric or gas light com- 
panies and no telephone companies. None of 
the great industries were even heard of at that 
time. The population was engaged almost 
wholly in rural pursuits. But in the minds of 
our great men, that condition seemed to make 
no difference in the capacity the framers had 
for meeting every possible contingency, and 
no difference in the perfection of the instru- 
ment they created. These wise men of Indiana 
now proclaim that the constitutional fathers 
of the Fifties were able to make provision for 
every contingency, and those wicked gentle- 
men who think we have out-grown the consti- 
tution adopted sixty-four years ago, should 
hike them hence at once and learn wisdom 
at the feet of the officers of the State Brewers' 
Association and the eminent persons named 
elsewhere in this connection. 

When the terrible Civil War began, and 
President Lincoln called for troops, thousands 
of Indiana's brave and patriotic citizens hur- 
ried to the front or to Canada. Oliver P. Mor- 
ton was the war governor of the state. He had 
whiskers but did not part them in the middle 
or trim them down to the shape of a half co- 
coanut. He was an energetic advocate of the 
cause of the North and did more work in its be- 



18 



half, considering the resources at his command, 
than any other of the famous war governors. 

There were more privates than generals 
among the Indiana soldiers, and there were 
very few engagements fought during the war 
that did not find Hoosiers in the ranks. 

General Morgan's famous raid into the 
North extended into Indiana. Morgan and his 
men crossed the Ohio River at Mauckport and 
marched northward through Corydon plun- 
dering stores and farms as he traveled. When 
he reached Palmyra, a small hamlet in the 
northern part of Harrison County, the yeo- 
manry of that region had gathered to obstruct 
his passage. The embattled farmers were 
armed with shot guns, pistols, pitch- forks, crow- 
bars, hand-spikes and other formidable weap- 
ons of warfare. Morgan and his troopers got 
away and marched to Salem in Washington 
County, where a cannon was planted in the 
streets, and the raider taking alarm, fled to 
the east through Jennings, Ripley and other 
counties into Ohio, where he was finally cap- 
tured by the Federals. Another smaller raid 
by guerilla bands was made into Spencer and 
Warrick Counties earlier in the war but slight 
damage was done. Outside of these two in- 
vasions, Indiana was free from Southern 
troops during the struggle. 

The white population of Indiana in 1800 was 
shown by the census to be 2517. There were 
nearly ten times that number in 1810. Since 
then there has been a gradual increase in in- 
habitants until today we are stretching toward 
the three million mark. Probably no state has 
a greater diversity of people than has Indiana. 
The first white settlers were French and many 

19 



of the early French names are yet to be found 
in the older communities. After the Revo- 
lutionary, the southern tier of counties began 
to fill up with emigrants from Kentucky, Vir- 
ginia and the Carolinas. Later, came the 
Quakers and other eastern state men to the 
Whitewater region. A large influx of Penn- 
sylvania Germans moved first into Ohio and 
later into northern and central Indiana. The 
state also received its share of the Revolution- 
ists of 1848, and the persecuted refugees from 
Ireland. During the past forty years, the Scan- 
dinavians of the north and the South-of- 
Europe hordes have moved in great numbers 
to the more populous centers of the state, un- 
til today there is scarcely a race of people that 
is not to be found within the borders of Indi- 
ana. 

Many residents of Indiana fail to appreciate 
the varied resources she possesses. Her soil is 
the very best, and every product of the Temper- 
ate Zone is likely to be found growing here. But 
the agricultural possibilities are not, by any 
means, all she has in the way of natural re- 
sources. In the southwestern portion are great 
coal deposits. In the central and eastern parts 
are oil wells, and there, a few years ago, In- 
diana's Natural Gas Belt was the wonder of 
the age. In the later eighties and the early 
nineties, the exuberant Hoosiers of Hamilton, 
Tipton, Howard, Madison, Delaware and 
other central Indiana counties thought they 
had an inexhaustible supply of fuel and light 
in the gas wells of that region. Flambeaus 
burned on every corner and the people revelled 
in a carnival of flame that would never end. 

But it did end. 

20 



Old Mother Earth differed from some of our 
leading- citizens. Her supply of gas could be 
estimated in cubic feet, and the time came 
when the flow showed signs of decrease. Then 
the pressure weakened perceptibly. It dwin- 
dled down to a mere shadow and was practic- 
ally gone. Of course, the iron go-devil oc- 
casionally soars skyward in fragments even 
yet as the oil and gas wells are shot, but most 
of the promoters and investors and dream- 
millionaires have shot their wads, and we must 
either manufacture the gas we use or have it 
pumped through our meters by Geist and his 
minions, or have it thrust upon us during the 
Chautauqua seasons and the biennial political 
battles. 

Indiana's stone quarries are unsurpassed. 
The Oolitic stone deposits extend from Green- 
castle, the home of Honorable Jackson Boyd, 
to Salem, a distance of nearly one hundred 
miles, with a width of from three to ten miles. 
Blue limestone is to be found in southeastern 
Indiana in abundance, while the southwestern 
part of the state is rich in brown, buff and gray 
sandstone. Whetstones are made from the 
Orange County quarries and the politicians 
usually go there at the beginning of each cam- 
paign to whet up. This county is also the 
home of Pluto Water which is used by all the 
best families. 

Some iron deposits are to be found in vari- 
ous parts of the state, but it has not been found 
profital)le to work them. It is easier to work 
the inhabitants. 

Small quantities of drift gold have been found 
in Brown, Morgan and other nearby counties, 
but most of the Indiana gold has been carried 

21 



away by promoters of mines at the mouth of 
the Columbia River and in Central America. 

The Judicial system of Indiana consists of 
a Supreme Court composed of five judges, an 
Appellate Court of six judges, sixty-seven Cir- 
cuit Courts each presided over by one judge, 
justice courts in each township, city courts in 
each organized city, a number of Superior 
Courts established by special act of the legis- 
lature and one or two criminal courts in the 
larger counties. 

Justice courts are provided for by the con- 
stitution and are limited in their jurisdiction. 
A justice court is usually presided over by 
some retired farmer or shop-keeper who knows 
no law and runs his court without fear of God, 
man or legal precedent. If a litigant is dis- 
pleased with the decision of a justice court, 
he may file a bond within thirty days and ap- 
peal to a Circuit or Superior Court, where in 
the course of a year or two, it is tried again, — 
this time by a court generally learned in the 
law. 

The Circuit and Superior Courts are con- 
current in jurisdiction in most matters, the 
Superior Court being merely a supplemental 
court established by the legislature in coun- 
ties where the work of the Circuit Court is too 
heavy. Nearly all important litigation passes 
through one or the other of these courts. Ap- 
peals may be taken from these courts to the 
Supreme and Appellate Courts. The Appel- 
late Court is a sort of supplemental adjunct of 
the Supreme Court and was established to re- 
lieve the Supreme Court of part of its work. 

Neither the Supreme or Appellate Court 
tries cases in the sense that evidence is heard. 



22 



They are courts of review and merely deal 
with the errors of the lower courts and review 
their decisions. 

City Courts are courts of inferior jurisdic- 
tion and generally of an inferior quality of leg- 
al timber. They are usually of the "hit and 
miss" variety of performance and are presided 
over b)'' persons who have been admitted to 
the bar and take that for granted as being suf- 
ficient to make them lawyers. 

The Judges of our Circuit, Superior and 
higher courts are usually lawyers of high grade 
and but little scandal has ever been connected 
with the judiciary of the state. 

For a number of years our people have been 
discussing "The law's delays." It is generally 
understood that the process of litigation is 
slow, wearisome and oppressive in many ways. 
This however, is not so much the fault of the 
courts as it is the fault of the system. The prac- 
tice act of Indiana could be made more simple 
and expeditious without impairing its efficiency, 
but as a rule, our legislators are too busy pass- 
ing fishing laws and game laws and ferret bills 
and inspection bills and other crazy creations 
of back-woods statesmen, to pay much atten- 
tion to the simplification of our practice act. 

In an early day, it was the custom to send 
the biggest, brainiest men of the community 
to the General Assembly. Such men as Robert 
Dale Owen, Judge Isaac Blackford, Jesse 
Bright and Oliver H.Smith were in turn, mem- 
bers. This practice of careful selection for leg- 
islative timber was in vogue in Indiana, as late 
as the Civil War. In the last few years, however, 
the main qualification of a legislator seems to 
depend upon his attitude on the liquor ques- 

23 



tion. If he is "safe" in this particular, he can 
easily be depended upon to vote "right" upon 
every other question involving any of the pred- 
atory interests. 

The pay of a member of the General Assem- 
bly is six dollars per day and mileage. States- 
men and patriots are loath to come forward at 
that price unless there are other emoluments 
of office in sight. So, sometimes, it is a scrub- 
by-looking lot that goes up to the Capital 
building to make our laws. Not many Har- 
risons or Turpies or McDonalds or Mortons 
or Hendrickses sit in our legislatures now-a- 
days. 

At a recent session of the General Assembly 
of Indiana, an allowance of Ten Dollars a day 
was made to a colored porter out of the state 
treasury, while the statesmen, whose coats and 
hats and shoes he brushed and cared for, and 
and who paid him tip-money in addition, re- 
ceived only six dollars a day. All this goes to 
show that a good porter is a more valuable as- 
set to the state than a statesman. 

Our legislatures have been very productive 
of laws of varied character and description. It 
takes a pretty good lawyer to keep up with all 
the freak changes. One has to be on the alert 
to know whether he can keep out of jail and at 
the same time hunt rabbits with a ferret, or 
whether he can sell a horse with a ring-bone 
or spavin without first publishing the fact in 
the local papers. 

The constitution requires that before a bill 
shall become a law it must be passed by a ma- 
jority of both houses of the General Assembly 
and signed by the Governor of the State, or in 
case of his veto, to be passed by a two-thirds 

24 



vote of each house, but the legislature referred 
to above, improved upon the constitutional 
idea and dispensed in some cases with the for- 
mality of passing" the laws at all. They were 
merely placed upon the statute books. It may 
be that in time we can even improve upon that 
plan. The legislators might have their pet 




"Whether he can sell a horse with a ring bone or spavin without 
first publishing the fact." 

measures all ready for introduction the first 
day of the session and drop them into a hopper. 
Then the clerks and door-keepers and pages and 
porters might keep open house up at the Capi- 
tol for the amusement of the public and tele- 
phonic communication might be had between 
the poker rooms at the hotels in case an emerg- 



25 



ency arose. Every time a statesman held an 
ace-full or better, he could be allowed to go up 
to the assembly hall and address the galleries 
on the state of the country. At the end of the 
sixty day session, the party leaders could pre- 
pare the needed changes in laws for the print- 
er, after which, each statesman could gather up 
his share of the stationary, books and other per- 
quisites and go on his way home. This, of 
course, is only a suggestion and may not meet 
the ideas of those in power and a better and 
less irksome plan may be adopted later. 

Indiana established a system of free schools 
at the time the present state constitution was 
adopted. In 1848, a vote was taken at the gen- 
eral election on the question, and 78,523 votes 
were cast for free schools and 61,887 against 
them. At that time, a great proportion of the 
population could not read or write. Since that 
time, great strides have been made in educa- 
tional matters and very few of Indiana's in- 
habitants are now without at least a common 
school education, while thousands of college- 
bred men and women are engaged in various 
pursuits over the state. There are also a num- 
ber of men, like the author of this work, who 
are possessed of a superior education and 
whose fund of knowledge is practically inex- 
haustible, thus placing Indiana in a high rank 
in educational matters. 

It has been said that every man in Indiana 
is a politician. It isn't true. The author of 
this standard history knows. He once took 
it for granted that the statement was true and 
that he was included among the politicians. 
The things that were done to him were too 
various and extended for the space at his com- 
mand here. He isn't a politician. There are 

26 



a few politicians in Indiana and a lot of indi- 
vidiiaLs that might be designated by the scien- 
tific name of '"dubs." The great majority of 
the voters of this state merely look for the em- 
blem of a rooster or an eagle on election day 
and vote a ticket usually framed up under 
some back stairway or in some private office 
by a little coterie of real politicians. 

The most despised individual in the state is 
the voter who becomes nauseated with the 
performances of his party organization, falls 
off the band wagon and heads for the woods. 
As he goes streaking for the tall timber, every 
little tad-pole follower of the big noise wrig- 
gles off in the opposite direction, and the out- 
law is told that his performance "won't git him 
nothin'." Not one voter in twenty has any- 
thing to do with framing party platforms or 
selecting party tickets, but the beautiful thing 
about it all is that he never suspects the truth. 
After he has marched in the glare of the Ro- 
man candles and Greek fire and howled him- 
self hoarse a few times, and has served faith- 
fully as challenger at the polls and has ad- 
dressed the assembled multitudes at Podunk 
School House on the virtues of his party, he is 
all the happier for not knowing that he is mere- 
ly a button on the key-board, and not a poli- 
tician at all. 

Probably no other state in the Union has 
furnished so many literary characters in the 
same length of time as has Indiana. In a work 
published sixteen years ago, poems were given 
from one hundred forty-six Indiana authors. 
All of these poems possess literary merit, and 
a number of the authors have attained nation- 
wide celebrity. The writers of prose far out- 
number the poets in this state. 

27 



It is not possible in this brief volume to 
enumerate all of Indiana's Avriters or discuss 
the merits of their productions, but a glance at 
a few of the best known will not be out of 
place. 

Edward Eggleston has been called the "First 
of the Hoosiers," and certainly his pictures of 
early Indiana life in "The Hoosier School 
Master" and "The Circuit Rider," did as much 
as anything else to awaken an interest in In- 
diana writings and Indiana writers. Some of 
the dialect used in these books has been criti- 
cised as not true to the life of the early Hoos- 
iers, but any one who lived in a backwoods 
settlement in Indiana, only fifty years ago, 
would recognize the jargon of Miranda Means 
and Bud and the rest of them as the language 
of some of their nearest neighbors. Eggleston's 
books were as fairly true pictures of early In- 
diana people as were the scenes from the "Gen- 
tleman from Indiana" pictures of another 
phase of Indiana life in another day. Booth 
Tarkington, the writer became famous merely 
because he made Hoosier life interesting and 
yet depicted scenes founded upon fact. 

Among Indiana writers, probably General 
Lew Wallace is the best known. His "Ben 
Hur" has been read around the world. John 
Clark Ridpath's historical works are to be 
found in almost every library. James Whit- 
comb Riley, the erstwhile sign-writer, became 
famous with his quaint verses, and "The Old 
Swimmin' Hole," "Old Aunt Mary's" and 
"When the Frost is on the Punkin and the 
Fodder's in the Shock" have delighted thou- 
sands of readers who never saw Indiana. These 
are only a few of the famous Hoosier writers. 
Who has not read George Barr McCutcheon's 

28 



"Graustark" or laughed over John McCutch- 
eon's cartoons? Where is the boy, girl, man or 
woman who does not enjoy George Ade's "Fa- 
bles in Slang" or Kin Hubbard's foolish phil- 
osophy? The names of Nicholson, Thompson, 
Dillon, Jordan, Sarah Bolton, Will Carleton 
and a large number of others are known the 
country over as famous Indiana writers. If 
it were not for the extreme modesty of the 
writer of this sketch, — but. Oh ! what's the 
use? It's time to quit anyway. 

They're Coming Home. 





From the West. 



From the East. 



From Poseyville to Polingtown 

From Rising Sun to Gary, 
The folks are hustling up and down 

For our first Centenary. 
From far and near, where'er men roam, 

The Hoosier Folk are coming home. 

They're gathering in at Evansville; 

They've captured Old Ft. Wayne; 
They'll celebrate at Bunker Hill, 

.A.nd Muncie will raise Cain. 



29 



From all the lands both far and near, 
The Hoosier folk are gathering here. 

And every county in the state 

Has donned its Sunday coat, 
The Century to celebrate. 

From Berne to Terre Haute; 
And railway business is not slack, 

For Hoosier folk are coming back. 

A hundred years we've been a state. 
And, My! How we have grown. 

'Tis fitting that we celebrate, 
And bring back to their own 

The errant folk who've strayed away. 
So welcome, Hoosiers, come and stay. 

Great as has been Indiana's progress during 
the century of statehood, the indications are that 
she is just entering upon her real career of pro- 
gress. Situated far enough from the sea-board 
to be free from the weakening influence of the 
older east, with a land rich in almost every na- 
tural advantage and a people just ready to 
ripen into a real intelligent democracy of 
thought and action, no state has brighter pros- 
pects of the future. What the next hundred 
years will bring forth woiild be as much of a 
revelation to us if we could live to see it as the 
present would be to the forefathers of 1816, 
could they see us now. 

In this, the one hundredth year of Indiana's 
statehood, fitting celebrations are being held in 
all parts of the state. Freckled-faced little girls 
by the thousands and boys with stone-bruised 
heels everywhere, are learning pieces to speak 
and practicing Centennial odes written by the 
local doggerel writers in each community. The 
Sons and Daughters of the American Revolu- 
tion, whose great, grandfathers ran tanneries 
at Bridgeport, Connecticut during that war, 
are busily engaged in forming committees and 

30 



drilling imitation Indians for pageants and 
plays. The local Demosthenes is addressing 
immense audiences of from twelve to twenty- 
five in each section of his county, on the im- 
portance of observing this centennial, and the 
marvellous feats of Indiana's citizens in war 
and peace. There will be patriotism and red 
fire and rejoicing all over the land before the 
robins fly away and cold winter comes apace. 

Every true Hoosier should take part and get 
his name in the papers at least once before the 
show is over. We will now sing the doxology 
and be dismissed. 



31 



LIBRftRY OF CONrDcco 

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